Mumbai Street Food Tour – Reality Tours and Travel

Chowpatty Beach

Sev Puri

Sev Puri has an interesting balance of sweet, salty, tart and spicy flavors, and different textures as well, including crispy and crunchy from the fried sev thin noodles. It also s includes tomatoes, onions, chillis as well as tamarind.

Pani Puri has similar sweet, tart, salty and spicy flavours but in a liquid form in a crisp shell.

Pao Bahji at Chowpatty Beach (mashed vegetables, red chilli and spices cooked with plenty of butter, scooped up and eaten with the fresh Pao bread bun)

Kulfi at Chowpatty Beach (an ‘ice cream’ made with condensed milk, delicious!)

Bendi Bazaar

Chicken sandwich and Chicken and Cheese Rolls on Mohamed Ali Road

Jalebi sweets on Mohamed Ali Road (made by deep frying wheat flour batter shapes, which are then soaked in sugar syrup.)

Taj Icc Cream on Mohamed Ali Road ( fantastic Alphonso Mango Ice cream)

CST Terminus at night (Mumbai’s largest train station) (The scene of the finale in the movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’)

Mumbai is famous for its street food and a great way to be guided through some of the best is to join one of Reality Tours and Travel’s Street Food Tours for around $AUS 24 per person. (This of course covers you for the cost of a very generous dinner, so you really only need a snack for lunch as well.)

The three hour tour starts at 5:30pm and first takes visitors to Chowpatty Beach to enjoy snacks with local families out for a treat. Don’t miss the ‘Famous Rabdi Kulfi’ stall for delicious layers of cream, pistachio, mango, orange and strawberry kulfi. Chowpatty Beach is also a great chance to try Mumbai’s signature street foods Pao Bhaji and Pani Puri.

The tour continues to Bendi Bazaar, a wonderful for street food in the Muslim area of Mumbai. Mohammed Ali Road was really buzzing during Ramadan as people broke their fast and enjoyed their favourite foods from busy stalls. This stop included the popular Taj Ice Cream shop – in business for over 120 years.

Second and third serves were generously offered and our guide Nilesh was terrific – thoughtful, friendly, engaging and knowledgable. As it was low (rainy) season, we had the tour all to ourselves, a special privilege.

Mumbai by Night Tour – Mumbai in a whole new light!

The Mumbai By Night tour that Reality Tours and Travel runs is a good way to see lots of scenic spots that are particularly lovely at night. It includes Marine Drive at dusk, very popular with couples, Chowpatty Beach if you missed Reality’s Street Food Tour, as well as the great view from the Hanging Gardens, wealthy Malabar Hill ( with its 27 floor 2 billion dollar house, for just five people… and their 200 staff), busy Bendhi Bazaar and Mohammed Ali Road and Victoria Station.

About $Aus 18 per person, travelling from point to point by car (nice at the end of a full day), for around 2.5 hours.

Mumbai Market Tour – local food and textile colour galore!

Reality Tours and Travels Market Tour is another great Mumbai tour, with excellent local guides, taking in heritage markets like Crawford fruit and vegetable market, Mangaldas textiles market, Flower market alley, as well as Mumbadevi Temple, and Bombay Panjrapole, the old cow shelter.

Great value fun and fascination – 2.5 hours at about $Aus 15 per person.

Parsi Cuisine at Mumbai’s Paradise Restaurant

Looking a bit like a country town cafe or old style milk bar, as Charmaine says in her Penguin Food Guide to India, the Paradise Restaurant really is an old fashioned style, waistcoated waiters, Parsi cuisine restaurant run by a charming Parsi couple’ who still remember the Aussie writer. As Charmaine says, the chicken and cheese patties are very good. It was also great to try the Sal Boti ( boneless mutton cooked with tomatoes and apricots, served with potato straws) as well as the Parsi celebration dessert, Lagan nu custard.

Not quite as much fun as a trip Britannia & Co. (frequently visited by TV and radio crews, celebrities and heads of state), but if you are staying in Colaba and short on time, it’s a convenient spot to try some classic Parsi dishes.

It’s tricky to find, so best to look for the Kailash Prabat Restaurant on the opposite side of the road. (FYI The gorgeous Colaba Sweet Mart, is almost next door too!)

Sind Chambers, Colaba Causeway
(022) 22832874
9am-2pm, 3-9pm (7days)

Brittania and Co. – perhaps Mumbai’s most fun spot to eat

Brittania and Company is definitely larger than life. It has become more than Mumbai’s most famous family run, old style Parsi cafe, it’s a real experience.

Mr Kohinoor, 92 years, engages customers with his experiences of famous visitors of state and his keen mind is great fun. We left with well wishes for Mr Abbott and a re-telling of a bold letter of life advice to Julia Guillard.

We tried the famous mutton berry pulao, the Parsi dish of Chicken Dhansak, the ‘to die for’ caramel custard ( it was very good) and took a generous fellow diner’s pic of their Sali Boti (which I will have to go back for, it looked so good).

But most of all we left having had a great time.

(This three minute ABC Radio National Britannia & Co. spot says it all, well worth a listen).

Address
Wakefield House 11, Opposite New Custom House, Near To Grand Hotel, Sprott Road 16, Ballard Estate, Mumbai
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India 400038
Phone 022-22615264, 022-30225260
Hours
Mon – Sat: 11:30 am – 3:30 pm

(Can get very busy so worth booking ahead.)

Travelling by train in Asia can be a great way to get around

Travelling on local trains is a wonderful way to interact with locals and travelling sellers and to experience a bit of everyday Indian life. You could be lucky enough to have a good chat, but even a few lovely smiles and the chance to sit back, sip a chai in a paper cup and watch families travelling together, is good fun.

The Dumpling House -Woden

The Dumpling House – Woden

The new Dumpling House (Chinese Kitchen BBQ restaurant) is a fun and welcome addition to the Woden lunch options.

The decor sets the scene and staff wear traditional style uniforms adding an ‘authenticity’ to the atmosphere.

Dumplings are a specialty, but the other dishes are good too. The steamed prawn dumplings, combination dumplings, pan fried pork buns and eggplant hot pot are particularly good, followed by the ‘Mixture’ dumplings, then the steamed pork buns and lastly the pan fried pork dumplings.

Three dishes between four people is just right for lunch.

Pan fried pork dumplings- excellent Deep fried bean curd with spicy peppery salt $14.80 – good texture, but lacking flavour

Combination (Chicken, beef, veg) steamed dumplings $15.80 excellent Eggplant and chicken mince in X.O sauce $17.80 very good

Combination laksa $15.80 – large enough to share, flavour quite good

Vegetarian spring rolls $3.40 for 2

Kung Po Chicken $15.80 – good

Busy and buzzing, it pays to book a table.
Service is efficient and quick making it ideal for a workday catchup.

steamed prawn dumplings $12.80

Mixture’ dumplings $13.80

steamed pork buns $13.80

pan fried pork dumplings

Open 7 days for both lunch (11am – 3pm)and dinner (5-10pm)

Shop G93-94
Corinna Street
Woden Plaza, Phillip, ACT 2606

Phone: 62604888

Easy, cheap phone calls to Asia make planning and booking easy

If you are putting together our own trip it can make all the difference to be able to phone hotels and tour providers, to ask questions and confirm bookings.

It’s also kind of fun to start to get to know the people you are going to meet on your trip.

For around $10 you can get plenty of talk time to make lots of calls (which are only ever quick ones) for a whole month.

Optus

Telstra

How to plan a great foodie trip in Asia

1. Compare published itineraries

See where others commonly go, and why

Good sources of ideas are:
Lonely Planet Guide
Food/travel books
Easy to follow Intrepid itineraries are detailed, available online in their ‘trip notes’ and combine local ‘highlights’ with lesser known, but often delightful, spots too

2. Keep travelling times low

Don’t try to cover too much ground in one go

Consider taking some domestic flights, if cheap and easy
Local taxis (your hotel or a local travel agency can organise this when you get there) or a hotel transfer can be a good option to get between spots, if you don’t need a full time driver/guide

3. Think about what you like to do best and plan around this theme (the rest can just fit in)

Perhaps it’s heritage hotels, local markets, street food, great eating opportunities, whatever you love most

4. Check out the weather and when it’s best to go

Try the Lonely Planet Guide or just google
Often weather is best in Nov-Feb, but you may be surprised
Festivals: you might want to catch them (Holi, Diwali and the Pushkar Camel Fair are great), or prefer to miss the crowds and busyness

5. If you’d prefer a group trip try:

Intrepid’s ‘Classic Rajasthan‘ (tried and true, great value, plenty of interesting accommodation and lots of highlights) but do try to catch the Pushkar Camel Fair: or

Intrepid’s ‘Delhi to Kathmandu’ (also a great mix of highlights and special experiences)

or Intrepid’s Vietnam Express Southbound